Snapchat is Going on the Public Market

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Snapchat’s parent company, Snap Inc., first promised to go on public markets on Sept. 24, 2016 in a blog post. Yesterday, they came one step closer by releasing a preliminary prospectus to the SEC. In the prospectus, Snap Inc. predicts a rich future for camera technology, saying:

In the way that the flashing cursor became the starting point for most products on desktop computers, we believe that the camera screen will be the starting point for most products on smartphones. This is because images created by smartphone cameras contain more context and richer information than other forms of input like text entered on a keyboard. This means that we are willing to take risks in an attempt to create innovative and different camera products that are better able to reflect and improve our life experiences.

The prospectus puts great weight in the future of Snap’s latest product, their sunglass camera called “Spectacles.” The company’s other key sources of revenue are paid advertising and cross promotion. Snap, indeed, boasted 158 million daily active users in the last quarter, with a revenue of $404.4 million for 2016. The current IPO promises $3 billion of stocks. Read the prospectus here, and see Snap’s diagrams representing the company’s history below.